Charities sue government

Friends of the Earth and Help the Aged are taking the government to court today for failing to meet its own legal obligation to eradicate fuel poverty.

The two charities will be filing a judicial review at the high court this morning, and have called on the government to set out how it will meet its target to eliminate the growing problem, which blights about 4.5m homes.

Two weeks ago the government's advisers, the Fuel Poverty Advisory Group (FPAG), said more than 2.3m of the most vulnerable households in England are forced to spend at least 10% of their income on heating and lighting.

Peter Lehmann, the outgoing chairman of FPAG, warned then that the government would miss its target to eradicate fuel poverty for the most vulnerable households by 2010, and for all households by 2016.

In making the court application today, the two charities have called on the government to identify accurately all those households facing hardship and set a minimum standard of energy efficiency for all households suffering fuel poverty.

Mervyn Kohler, an adviser for Help the Aged, said: "The government's fuel poverty strategy is a fiasco and, all too often, older people are the casualties."

Ed Matthew of Friends of the Earth, said: "The government has missed an opportunity to both end fuel poverty and bring down carbon emissions."